


full name ultimatum

by procellous



Series: tumblr prompt fics [4]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Ironborn Culture & Customs, POV Theon Greyjoy, Storytelling, Tree Climbing, aside from the references to the inherent tragedy of Theon Greyjoy's life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26820442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/procellous/pseuds/procellous
Summary: “Brandon Stark!”Theon shouted. “Get back down here!”
Relationships: Theon Greyjoy & Bran Stark
Series: tumblr prompt fics [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1889671
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	full name ultimatum

**Author's Note:**

> a request for Kit!

“ _Brandon Stark!_ ” Theon shouted. “Get back down here!”

“No!” Bran replied, climbing higher on the tree, which Theon really should have expected. The boy wasn’t bad at climbing, though Theon had been faster at his age. Then again, Theon had been _expected_ to climb. 

“Then I’ll come up and _drag_ you down!”

“I’d like to see you try!”

Theon dropped his cloak and took off his boots. Bran was going to regret that. He might not have climbed in— _six years, two moons, and eleven days_ —a while, but he had spent hours racing up and down the ratlines, perched up in the crow’s nest, a rat among rats, and come home to his mother’s joy and his father’s reluctant pride. 

Muscle memory carried him off the ground. The old tree was hardly a mast, the branches were hardly the tarred lines, but Theon could almost smell salt. 

Bran was climbing higher, squirrel-like, but Theon was still faster, and his height gave him an advantage, skipping branches and pulling himself towards the crown. 

His hand closed around the back of Bran’s jerkin. “Now, you can climb down yourself, or I can carry you down, your choice.”

“How did you do that? I’ve never seen you climb a tree before.”

“I’m Ironborn, remember? This tree’s not quite a mast, but it’s close enough. Come down.” 

“What’s it like on the Iron Islands? You never talk about it.” _  
_

“It’s…” _painful_ “not important. Your mother will have both our hides if you’re not down soon.”

“I’ll climb down if you tell me a story.”

“I can still carry you down, you know.”

“I’ll tell you where to get the best smushy apples to throw at people.”

“Fine. _One_ Ironborn story, and then you climb down, and you don’t climb again today.”

“Deal.”

They shook on it. Theon cast his mind back to find a story. He didn’t want to tell Bran about anything too bloody, or Lady Catelyn _would_ murder him. 

“So, a long time ago, all the Ironborn lived underwater, with the fish. The Drowned God wanted them to stay close, and safe, while he fought all the sea monsters. But the Ironborn refused. They wanted to fight as well, and they planned to sneak out of the Drowned God’s halls. But he caught them, and forbade them to go. Some of them heeded his ban, but most refused, and that night they snuck out when he came back after a fight.

“They traveled far, and finally came to a great land, full of monsters for them to fight and treasure for them to take, and they set themselves up as kings and that’s where the Ironborn came from.”

“What happened to the people who stayed behind?”

“They married fish and their children became mermaids.” He didn’t want to be the one who taught Bran the word fuck. It was close enough.

“So am I a mermaid?”

“Why would you be a mermaid?”

“Because Mother’s a fish.”

Theon laughed. “I don’t think that’s how it works, but keep an eye out for scales. Now, we had a deal, time to climb down.”

“ _Brandon Stark! Theon Greyjoy!_ ” Lady Catelyn shouted. “Get down here!”


End file.
